1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a tubular bag, especially with cap closure, for the accommodation of pasteurized products of fluid foodstuffs, for example milk or similar, wherein the base of the bag is constructed especially as a standing base and, if applicable, is welded or sealed fluid-tight with the bag as a separate component along the base-end bag edge.
2. Description of the Related Art
Tubular, especially sealed, bags are generally known. They are, as mentioned above, predominantly used to accommodate fluid or flowable products. They are convenient and practical to use. The products can be released from the sealed bag simply by squeezing it, provided the bag has an opening. Bags without such an opening generally have a tear-off closure. With respect to their packaging weight, the bags have compact packaging in comparison with cans or bottles for example and offer the advantage of a very low empty/full weight ratio.
A bag of this type is known from AT 293 944. This concerns containers constructed in the shape of a tube, wherein the tubular piece that forms the tube is sealed by welded seams at both tube ends running transversely to the longitudinal direction, wherein one of these welded seams forms a cone, into which a neck part of a closure equipped with a screw thread is sunken and connected by means of welding with the tubular part. The disadvantage of this tube is that the transversely running welded seam of the base does not permit the container to stand upright, which means this container cannot be set down like a bottle. Accordingly, in AT 293 944 a standing base, together with a tubular bag section constructed to be collapsible and flexible, is proposed.
The known construction, however, does not yet have the properties of a dimensionally stable bottle or an equally dimensionally stable can for the accommodation of drinks or similar.
Furthermore, the aforementioned tubular film bags of the type specified are used in many cases for filling with fluids. Since the starting point for manufacturing these stand-up bags is always a rectangular cut of film, conventional stand-up bags when full are considerably wider at the head area than at the base area. This is even more so the case the more the base of a full stand-up bag is spread out by the bag's contents. Such spreading does not take place in the head area, since there is always a closure part sunken into the head area and this prevents it from spreading apart. The longitudinal edges of the stand-up bag merge into a flat head seam. The disadvantage with this conventional embodiment is that, due to their flat head seams, the bags are pressed flat and therefore cannot be filled too close to the top, otherwise it would be not possible to prevent these bags from overflowing.
A further disadvantage of the aforementioned tubular bags is the low level of stability. The sealed bags known at present either have no standing base at all or have an oval-shaped standing base. These bases demonstrate, in a side view of the sealed bag, insufficient latitudinal extension in the z-direction, which means their stability is unsatisfactory. Since it is predominantly fluid contents that are distributed in such bags, this is particularly problematic, because if the bag falls over, its entire contents will pour out.
Attempts so far to provide a solution that offers high stability have used a firm, i.e. stiff, plastic insert to make the sealed bag stable. However, this measure has had a negative effect on the originally good empty/full weight ratio. Furthermore, the volume of waste produced by an empty or used sealed bag has increased, which is also disadvantageous.